Lotus (rock band)
Encyclopedia
Lotus is an instrumental electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 jam band
Jam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...

 formed in Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

 in 1999 now based in Philadelphia, PA and Denver, CO.

History

Formed at Goshen College
Goshen College
Goshen College, is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana, USA with an enrollment of around 1,000 students. The college is accredited by North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities...

 in Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

 in 1999, and after a few years of playing what they describe as "funk/jam music", Lotus recruited percussionist Chuck Morris in 2001 and shifted their focus to instrumental music, taking inspiration from electronic musicians such as The Orb
The Orb
Throughout 1989, the Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1...

. The band's first album, Vibes, a compilation of live performances from their 2001 tour, was released in 2002, after which they signed to Harmonized Records, releasing a live album and two studio albums between 2003 and 2006. 2004's Nomad went to the top of the Home Grown Music Network charts and by the end of the year was the HGMN Best Seller. It was also nominated for a "New Groove of the Year" Jammy award. The album saw the band described by Allmusic as "an electronically inclined jazz-funk outfit", with Glide magazine stating "Nomad exhibits Lotus' tight ability to blend shades of organic groove with elements of urban house". The band's last album on Harmonized, The Strength of Weak Ties was described by PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...

 as "instrumentals that - for the most part - don't go anywhere, but occasionally pulling out something that is genuinely thrilling". The band then signed to SCI Fidelity
SCI Fidelity
Formed in 1998, SCI Fidelity Records is an independent record label based in Boulder, Colorado. It is owned and managed by the jam band The String Cheese Incident....

 Records, debuting on the label with the live double album, Escaping Sargasso Sea, which was nominated for a Jammy award by Guitar Player magazine for "Best Live Album of 2007". The album was described by Relix
Relix
Relix magazine was launched in 1974 as newsletter devoted to connecting people who recorded Grateful Dead concerts. It rapidly expanded into a music magazine covering a wide amount of artists...

 magazine as "sexy and sophisticated dance music, mature enough to be played in the club or the living room". The band followed this with Copy/Paste/Repeat, an album of remixes of tracks from their previous two studio albums, by bands and producers including Lymbyc Systym
Lymbyc Systym
Lymbyc Systym is an instrumental band from Tempe, Arizona which formed in 2001, consisting of brothers Jared and Michael Bell. Their sound combines elements of instrumental rock and electronic music. Lymbyc Systym have toured with Broken Social Scene, The Books, Crystal Castles, The Album Leaf, ...

, Juan Maclean, DJ Harry and Telepath. The album was positively received by PopMatters, who said "Copy/Paste/Repeat reinvents the jam band’s music as dance floor jams, with hip hop and trance-influenced beats and mind-warping electronic synth burbles".

The album, Hammerstrike was released on SCI Fidelity in 2008 to positive reviews. The band followed the album's release with a forty seven-date North American tour. On Oct. 6, 2009 Lotus released a set of 2 EPs titled Oil on Glass/Feather on Wood featuring music recorded during the Hammerstrike sessions and 3 remixes of tracks from Hammerstrike.

The album "Lotus" was released on Sept. 13, 2011. The band recorded the album between Dec. 2009 and Oct. 2010 with Bill Moriarty in Philadelphia with additional recordings made in the home studios of Jesse and Luke Miller and at various locations around the country. David Wrench
David Wrench
David Wrench is a singer, musician and studio producer/ sound engineer from Anglesey, Wales. His music has ranged from camp synth pop to Doom inspired Folk....

 mixed a number of the tracks and a few tracks were mixed by Bill Moriarty along with Jesse Miller and Luke Miller. The band released its first music video for Golden Ghost http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcBLWHXhs24 in August 2011.

The band has built much of their following on word of mouth, encouraging the recording and trading of live shows and playing between 90-115 live shows per year.

Live Shows

Lotus is known for concerts in which a complex light set up is used and their use of varying set lists that employ frequent group improvisation. The concerts are often recorded by amateur engineers (tapers
Taper (concert)
A Taper is a person who records musical events often from standing microphones in the audience for the benefit of the musical group's fanbase. Such taping was popularized in the late 1960s and early 1970s by fans of the Grateful Dead. Audio recording was allowed at shows and fans would share their...

) and posted online for others to listen to. Beginning with their January 27, 2008 show in Charleston, SC, Lotus has sold their own soundboard recordings of certain shows on the site LiveDownloads.com; they are available in both MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

 and FLAC
FLAC
FLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost...

 formats. The band has undertaken a number of tours and have performed at festivals including Jam on the River (Philadelphia, PA 2007 and 2008), Wakarusa (KS 2005, 2006, 2007), and the Rothbury Music Festival
Rothbury Music Festival
The Rothbury Festival is a four-day jam band music festival in Rothbury, Michigan at the Double JJ Resort. The festival first occurred in 2008 during the Independence Day holiday weekend. In addition to music and arts, the festival is intended to promote sustainability and promote overall...

 in July 2008 and 2009. The band played a concert in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in September 2008 in which the new album Hammerstrike was played in full. They also played at the Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, IL in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Other festivals include Nateva Music & Camping Festival
Nateva Music & Camping Festival
Nateva Music & Camping Festival was a four day, multi stage, limited capacity outdoor camping festival held July 1 - July 4, 2010 at the 100+ acre Oxford Fairgrounds in Oxford, Maine. The festival featured headliners moe., The Flaming Lips, and Furthur...

 (2010), 10,000 Lakes, All Good Festival and their own festival called Summerdance.

Lotus has toured in Japan 3 times performing at clubs and festivals including Metamorphose, Green Room Festival and Space Shower TV.

The band has performed several themed shows. On October 31, 2008 at the TLA in Philadelphia the show was billed as "Live Fast Die Young: the 27 Conspiracy". Each of the 5 members dressed as a rock star who died at the age of 27 (Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Pigpen, and Jim Morrison) and the show featured covers by each of the respective bands. On Dec. 31, 2008 the band performed a show that included robot themed covers including Styx - "Mr. Roboto", Alan Parson's Project - "I Robot", Flaming Lips - "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots: Part I", Radiohead - "Paranoid Android", and Daft Punk - "Robot Rock". On Oct. 31, 2009 at Sonar in Baltimore the Halloween show was presented as "Protein Pills in the Labyrinth". The band members dressed as different David Bowie characters (including Ziggy Stardust, Thin White Duke, and Jareth) and played "Under Pressure," "Fame," "I'm Afraid of Americans," "Space Oddity," "Let's Dance," "Rebel, Rebel" and "Suffragette City," along with original Lotus material. These David Bowie songs have occasionally appeared thereafter during the rest of the Fall 2009 tour. On Feb. 22, 2010 at Schuba's in Chicago the band's first of two sets focused on post-rock music featuring covers of Tortoise, Trans Am and This Will Destroy You
This Will Destroy You
This Will Destroy You, often abbreviated to TWDY, is an American post-rock band from San Marcos, Texas, formed in 2005. The band consists of guitarists Jeremy Galindo and Chris King, bass player and keyboardist Donovan Jones and drummer Alex Bhore...

 along with Lotus's own post-rock compositions. On Oct. 30, 2010 at the Roseland in Portland, OR the band performed a Black Sabbath themed show. For the second set the band came on stage dressed as Black Sabbath and performed remixed versions of side A of the album Paranoid (War Pigs, Paranoid, Planet Caravan, Iron Man), celebrating 40 years since its release. On Oct. 31, 2010 at the Showbox in Seattle, WA the band paid tribute to video game music. They performed versions of Pac-Man (Power Pills Remix), Contra (Jungle Theme), MegaMan2 (Dr. Wiley's Theme), Tetris theme and Zelda (Overworld and Underworld themes).

Lotus was featured on the cover of the tour industry's leading magazine in October 2008 Pollstar
Pollstar
Pollstar is a concert tour industry's leading trade publication that gets its information primarily from the agents, managers and promoters who are producing concerts. Founded in 1981, it is based in Fresno, California and has an office in London with correspondents in six countries. Pollstar is...

.

2010 summer touring took the band to many of the premier US music festivals. The band performed at Wakarusa, Starscape, Bonnaroo, Nateva, High Sierra Music Festival, All Good, Ultra, moe.down and Nocturnal among other shows.
In 2011 Lotus appeared at Summer Camp, Wakarusa, Mountain Jam, Starscape, Electric Forest, Red Rocks, Camp Bisco, Outside Lands and North Coast Festival among other shows.

Musical Style

Expanding upon a wide range of styles and sounds, Lotus is considered a multi-genre band. The group incorporates elements of rock, electronica, jazz, jam, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 and other influences. The band originally played as a jamband that leaned heavily on the sounds of funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

, rock and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 and with improvisational styles similar to Phish
Phish
Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...

, Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead. Jesse Miller said of the band's sound: "I truly believe Lotus' sound comes from the roots of rock 'n' roll mixed with electronic beats that are popular today. It took a long time for us to finally find a sound we all agreed on. But believe me, we experimented plenty before deciding what sound we were looking for".

Influenced heavily by the band's love for dance music and artists like The Orb
The Orb
Throughout 1989, the Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1...

, Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin
Richard David James , best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music"...

, Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...

, Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

, and Air the band's style has gravitated toward elements of the electronic genre while maintaining the foundation of jamrock.

Since 2006 the band has fused elements of progressive and post rock into their sound. Artists like Trans Am
Trans Am (band)
Trans Am is a three-piece band which originated in Bethesda, Maryland that was one of the originators of "post-rock" in the mid 90s. Their work centers on a cerebrally robotic, usually instrumental, semi-danceable, minimalistic format, with influences including Krautrock, heavy metal, hardcore...

, Tortoise
Tortoise
Tortoises are a family of land-dwelling reptiles of the order of turtles . Like their marine cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace, the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge. The tortoise...

, Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed in 1999 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of its members currently play in various other groups and solo projects, mainly based around the city of Toronto...

 and Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

 have influenced Lotus.

Members

  • Mike Rempel - guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

  • Jesse Miller - bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

     and sampler
    Sampler (musical instrument)
    A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...

  • Mike Greenfield - Drums
  • Luke Miller - guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

    /keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

  • Chuck Morris - percussion

Discography

  • Vibes (2002) self-released (out of print)
  • Germination (live) (2003) Harmonized Records
  • Nomad (2004) Harmonized Records
  • The Strength of Weak Ties (2006) Harmonized Records
  • Escaping Sargasso Sea (live) (2007) Sci Fidelity
  • Copy/Paste/Repeat (remixes) (2007) Lotus Vibes Music
  • Hammerstrike (2008) Sci Fidelity
  • Oil on Glass/Feather on Wood EPs (2009) Sci Fidelity
  • Lotus (2011) Sci Fidelity

External links


Reviews


Articles


Interviews


Other Media

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